Introduction
Hello, hello.
Since we now have quite a number of messages and users, I think it's time to give some indications about how to post messages.
Do not worry, this will not be very long, and you will probably agree with most of it, and perhaps discover things too

Personal information
Filling correctly your personal information is not mandatory, but this is nice.
First, you should know that only registered users can see your email adress, so you do not risk any spamming, and it makes it easy for everyone to contact you.
Then if you put a nice picture, and some information about where you live, it feels more cozy
Additionaly it allows me to spot the people that registered just to post referal links

Choosing the right forum
If you are replying to an existing message, of course the question is meaningless. But if you are planning to post a new mesage, please think a little bit about it, by asking some questions:
- What does the message talks about ?
- What kind of answer do I want to get (if any) ?
With that in mind you may choose the right forum for posting.

Typically, if you want to post a message about "How to use DATA in BASIC for playing music in your game", the right forum is probably the BASIC programming section, not the audio or the game sections.
(The reason is that this is a generic BASIC programming question that people ignorant in the audio domain and uninterested by games will eventually be able to reply to, and people that are interested by music and games but do not no programming... will not reply anyway )

How to edit messages
When you write your messages, please do not hesitate using and abusing the formating features of phpbb. If you are not sure about what can be done, you can consult this very interesting page that shows how to use BBCODE: http://forums.mozillazine.org/faq.php?mode=bbcode

The most single important thing you should try to do, is to get readable blocs of texts, that do not feel like a giant english pudding:
- Use headers (in bold or underlined)
- Separate logically different sections with spacing
- Use the Quote and Code commands to clearly show who you are replying to.
- Insert pictures or link on files if it improve the readability.
- Use the Preview function to check that your post displays correctly before submiting.

Mistakes and forgoted things
If you forgot to write something, or found out a mistake, please do not reply to yourself !
In this case, use the Edit function. You can edit as many time a post that you wrote yourself.

File hosting
If you want to get access to the Defence Force forum ftp, just ask me in private message, I will give you access, so you will be able to post data and link them in your post.
Just some few rules to remember:
- No pirated data
- The ftp is linux based, case sensitive, and does not like spaces in names. If your picture does not appear, check the case !
- Use folders and meaningfull names, do not put everything at the root of the ftp: you are not the only one in the room